Graduate School

KaitlynM2188 · 11-09-2008, 08:08 PM

Hello all,

I am currently working toward my bachelor's degree in biochemistry, a subject which I find fascinating. I also find nutrition, fitness, and exercise science fascinating. I am most likely going to graduate a semester early, and I would love to go to graduate school. The problem is, I have no idea what to go to graduate school for with such varying interests. I would love to go to school for nutrition or exercise science, but there are so many programs to choose from! With a background in biochemistry, what are some careers in the nutrition/fitness fields that I could get into?

Jean-Paul · 11-09-2008, 09:43 PM

Just go to med school. Don't futz around with personal training if you have the capacity and the aptitude to be a doc. You'll do much better financially for one thing. Plus, there's nothing preventing you from learning a lot about fitness and nutrition as a doc. There is an extreme shortage of doctors who know what the fuck they're doing because they haven't bridged the gap between what they do and what we do.

KaitlynM2188 · 11-10-2008, 06:32 AM

I have given medical school some thought, I'm just not sure i want to be an MD. I suppose it'll just take some research to decide what I want to do!

bryanc · 11-10-2008, 11:35 PM

There are probably five things you could do that would put you financially just as well off as a physician that would not require medical school. Medicine (with a few exceptions) is not for those who are looking to make money. It is definitely not worth the sacrifice for that (and you _will_ sacrifice). There isn't a whole lot of thinking involved in medicine--it's all about memorizing a massive volume of information and being able to access said encyclopedic-level knowledge on cue. I would argue that most people can do this. Whether you become a physician or not has more to do with persistence and resilience than it has to do with intellectual potential.

It sounds like you really need to explore all of your options and narrow your choices down. Biochemistry is an excellent background for a lot of things; but just make sure that you take the time to explore other things through electives that will make you well-rounded and give you a broad-base for your education. I don't know where you are in school, but I would definitely want to know why you want to pursue graduate studies, or whether you think it's just a good next step, given that you have no idea what you want to study in grad school.